1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light source apparatus and a processing method.
2. Related Background Art
Light source apparatuses that output laser light have been used for various purposes such as processing and medical uses, and are generally required to have high power of output laser light and high beam quality. An optical fiber laser light source apparatus that has gained attention among light source apparatuses uses an amplifying optical fiber whose core is doped with various rare earth elements such as Yb, Er, and Tm as an amplifying medium.
In the optical fiber laser light source apparatus, by adopting an MOPA (Master Oscillator Power Amplifier) configuration, etc., that amplifies seed light outputted from a seed light source by an amplifying optical fiber, power of output laser light can be increased. In addition, the optical fiber laser light source apparatus amplifies light that propagates in the core of the amplifying optical fiber, so that the beam quality of the output laser light is high. Therefore, the optical fiber laser light source apparatus is preferably used for processing purposes, etc.
Generally, a light intensity distribution in a beam cross section of laser light outputted from the light source apparatus is desirably a Gaussian distribution or in a form close to a Gaussian distribution. As the light intensity distribution of the output laser light becomes closer to the Gaussian distribution, the beam quality of the output laser light becomes higher. As the beam quality of the output laser light becomes higher, the beam diameter of the laser light can be made smaller by a lens system, so that high-quality processing is possible.